We've been waiting for a bit to write this article, as we wanted to hear some sort of a response from Absolute Poker. Now that they have issued some kind of statement (via their affiliate manager) we thought we would finally write up this article.

A few days ago, threads on Two Plus Two and Pocketfives.com started popping up, alleging that Absolute Poker has a "superuser" account that can read everyone's hole cards. Three user accounts were targeted for suspicion. They were:

POTRIPPER

DOUBLEDRAG

GRAYCAT

People have speculated that these three accounts may have nefariously accessed the "superuser" account, or may be close to some of the higher-ups in Absolute, or may be some of the higher-ups in Absolute, or may have been involved in the creation of the Absolute Poker software and may be exploiting a "hole" that they left in the software. These are just things that we have heard, not saying that any of them are actually true.

What sparked the suspicion in the first place? An unbelievable call that POTRIPPER made against CRAZYMARCO heads-up in an Absolute Poker tournament on September 13th. POTRIPPER called a massive all-in on the turn with 10 9, while CRAZYMARCO held 9 2 of hearts for a flush draw and no pair. POTRIPPER took down the pot and won the high buy-in tournament.

Then, the incredible success of DOUBLEDRAG and GRAYCAT was scrutinized, as both of these accounts saw incredible returns over just a couple hundred hands. Combine their incredible short-term success with the fact that they never seemed to call the river, only raise or fold, and their play was deemed extremely suspicious by large numbers of the online poker community. Also, these players seemed to raise pre-flop and then immediately toss their hand if they didn't hit the flop, foregoing any continuation bets or trying to outplay their opponents on the flop. Combine all of this together, and you have a suspicious poker community.

Absolute Poker has responded with the following points:

-they have temporarily frozen the "suspicious" accounts while they conduct a thorough investigation

-they have yet to find any evidence of wrongdoing

-the player's hands in question come from a "small sample" of hands

-AP has researched their play exhaustively and found no proof that they had knowledge of other player's hole cards

-"there were hands that were played poorly -- from a poker strategy perspective -- and these players did receive a fortunate result."

-so far AP has no evidence that any of the players were involved in chip dumping or any other improper activity